Rediscovering God

I'd been raised a Roman Catholic, but when I came out at the
age of 17, I assumed that God and I would go our separate
ways. After all, the Catholic Church is infamous for its shabby
treatment of homosexuals, both in the lack of recognition of gay
marriages and discouraging of gay relationships. I felt very
modern, having come out at such a young age, and felt confident
that I could live a life without religious faith, which I'd come to
view as a sort of crutch. I think when a lot of young homosexuals
come out, they turn their back on any religious background they may
have had. Even a notion of God at all seems stuffy, old fashioned,
maybe even trite.

So the reason I'm writing this short article is to remind
young people that even though various churches disagree with the
practice of homosexuality, this does not mean you need have no
faith in a loving God.

When I went away to university some years later I learned a
lot of life lessons and had many different experiences, not all of
them positive. It was a very emotional and difficult time in my
life. Some memories are among the happiest and some are among the
worst. But in those powerful moments, both happy and sad, I could
feel the presence of a loving force in my heart. It was something
that seemed to be beyond me, something that seemed to stretch
across the whole universe, putting its power and faith in me, even
if I had no faith to put in it. I would savor these little "God
moments" and look for them in my day to day life. Even though it
was long after I stopped believing in any sort of God, the force
seemed to be ever present.

When I came home I was extremely depressed. My father said "I
know you think it's silly, but have you ever thought that God could
be a source of comfort?" It was like a light bulb went off in my
head.

Today, I am still not what you would call a practicing member
of any church or faith. I am still bitter about the hypocrisy and
discrimination that goes on in religious organizations. But I
believe that the word of Jesus (or the word of Buddha, or Mohammed,
or whoever) is for everyone and that no one need be excluded from
sacred teachings, either by churches or by their own cynicism. I
know that there are times, especially in the lives of young
homosexuals, that a terrible sense of loneliness can come over you,
a feeling that you have no one to turn to. But if you can feel the
presence of God in your life, I promise that you will know that
life can be truly wonderful. Whether it comes in the form of a
prayer, or the sound of popcorn popping or an old friend's smile.
The miracle of God is that its holy presence can be found in
everything, and by everyone, no matter what their sexual
orientation.